Ryder Cup Aesthetic - Lisa Pavin vs Tommy Hilfiger

Normally we'd be expecting to see red at the upcoming Ryder Cup.

Along with white and blue, the patriotic color pallet has always been considered de rigueur, with sometimes dubious results.

According to what's been revealed thus far however, the 2010 team will be sporting a variety of looks... largely retro-inspired... and they'll be rather light on the red, white and blue.

The 2010 collection was presented last week by US team captain Corey Pavin and his ebullient wife Lisa who spent the last two years working with designers to come up with the 2010 collection.

Few additional details were revealed but we did find out there'll be a trophy sweater, which is a bit worrisome as trophy sweaters are... by their very nature... tricky. Any time a sweater has an image woven into it... or otherwise adhered to it... the look can veer perilously close to that of the Ugly Christmas Sweater. So let's just hope we don't go there.

For Sunday it's apparently going to be black-on-black which should work everyone... as long as the accessories don't get out of hand.

The thing I found most disconcerting however was the sweater pictured in the one image released from the showing last week. Described as a "cornflower" colored cardigan, it appears in the photo (above) to be distinctly lavender. Which begs the question: when did "cornflower" stop being blue? According to the Crayola Crayon Color Chronology it still is, and that's what I'm hoping because that bright red patch on the left breast categorically clashes with the lavender sweater. Doesn't it?

And that brings me back to red white and blue... or more specifically lack there of. You see according to The Captainess, "Because there is not an abundance of these colors, each golf outfit features a patch with the Ryder Cup Trophy prominently displayed on the front left breast and the American flag patch on the back collar."
That left me wondering if the patches weren't added as an afterthought when the outfits were deemed "not patriotic enough". But perhaps the sweater just looks lavender in the photo or... just as likely... perhaps I'm the only one bothered by it.

It's just that this is fashion week and I was at Lincoln Center last night for the Tommy Hilfiger show. He's calling 2011 Spring/Summer the "Twisted Country Club" collection. It featured ample amounts of red, white and blue and if you can get past the leggy models in tiny skirts and cropped tops you might see what I saw: The perfect inspiration for a patriotically preppy Ryder Cup Collection.



Be that as it may, the "select group of golf fashion writers" who actually saw last week's presentation by the Pavins was uniformly impressed. In fact "super impressed" the way Khaki Crusader's Sean Hotchkiss described it, with his partner Annmarie Dodd adding that "Every man on the team is going to look handsome at every turn." Veteran golf fashion expert and Golf Digest Fashion Director Marty Hackel, even went so far as to declare that the 2010 styles were, "...the best collection of Ryder Cup apparel. Period." So I don't think there's anything to worry about.

Besides, there is in fact a collection of Tommy Hilfiger Ryder Cup wear that's available to the public and available at the online at... The Official European Ryder Cup shop.